Cable Box to DVD Player to HDTV

Factual Questions
1

We had these things installed and connected by a pro; I made a drawing of the connections to keep forever. I came home yesterday to find that my darling Marcie has MOVED the damn TV, DVD player, and Cable Box: She simply unplugged every thing and let the cables lay where they fell. Now, I can’t find the drawing I made, nor can we find any illustrations/instructions that came with the various pieces of equipment. I don’t wanna pay for another installation unless I have to.

Cable Box is a Pace, provided by Brighthouse; DVD Player is LG; TV is Sony; I can provide model numbers if needed.

Help me, please. If there is a good web site that details these things, please give me a link; my Google skills are minimal at best.

Thanks in advance.

2

What kinds of cables do you have? Usually you don’t go from a cable box to the DVD then to the TV. Generally you go box to TV and DVD to TV via different cables and inputs. The other option might be from DVD to box to TV.

Unless you have a DVD recorder most of the DVD players I’ve seen do not have inputs on them.

3

[QUOTE=Edward The Head]
What kinds of cables do you have? Usually you don’t go from a cable box to the DVD then to the TV. Generally you go box to TV and DVD to TV via different cables and inputs. The other option might be from DVD to box to TV.

Unless you have a DVD recorder most of the DVD players I’ve seen do not have inputs on them.
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t really mean to imply that the sequence of connection was as I typed the title; in fact, I didn’t think about it. As to cables, I’m using the ones that my Darling Marcie bought when she bought the system—I’m sure they are after market cables but I don’t know the brand names.

4

Will Darling Marcie bring enough at auction to pay for a service call? :smiley:

There’s not really a generic answer to that question–if there were, people probably wouldn’t have to pay other people to do this in the first place. But most of it’s driven by your TV itself; if you can find your manual, or get one from the manufacturer online, it should give you a start on the right way to hook things up.

5

You’re going to have to give us some hints. The model numbers of the various bits ‘n’ pieces would be a help. If you could try and describe the types of cables involved, that would help too.

6

[QUOTE=LouisB]
We had these things installed and connected by a pro; I made a drawing of the connections to keep forever. I came home yesterday to find that my darling Marcie has MOVED the damn TV, DVD player, and Cable Box: She simply unplugged every thing and let the cables lay where they fell. Now, I can’t find the drawing I made, nor can we find any illustrations/instructions that came with the various pieces of equipment. I don’t wanna pay for another installation unless I have to.

Cable Box is a Pace, provided by Brighthouse; DVD Player is LG; TV is Sony; I can provide model numbers if needed.

Help me, please. If there is a good web site that details these things, please give me a link; my Google skills are minimal at best.

Thanks in advance.
[/QUOTE]

You have an HDTV, so both the cable box and the DVD player are likely hooked up to the tv by either

(i) component cables (color coded Red, Green and Blue) plus an audio cable (either optical (often a fragile looking cable with squarish connectors), coaxial digital (looks like the Red Green Blue cable above, but only has 1 cable as opposed to three) or analog rca (white and red cable)); or

(ii) an HDMI cable.

Can you give us a head count of the above wires? Also, do you have a separate receiver and sound system for audio, or are you using the TVs speakers?

7

[QUOTE=Long Time Lurker]
You have an HDTV, so both the cable box and the DVD player are likely hooked up to the tv by either

(i) component cables (color coded Red, Green and Blue) plus an audio cable (either optical (often a fragile looking cable with squarish connectors), coaxial digital (looks like the Red Green Blue cable above, but only has 1 cable as opposed to three) or analog rca (white and red cable)); or

(ii) an HDMI cable.

Can you give us a head count of the above wires? Also, do you have a separate receiver and sound system for audio, or are you using the TVs speakers?
[/QUOTE]

I have one component cable with three wires, color coded red, green, and blue.
I have one analog/rca cable with two wires, color coded red and white.
I have one component cable with three wires, color coded white, red, yellow*.
All terminations are as shown in your picture of component cables .

*I distinctly remember the installer guy telling me that the yellow plug shouldn’t be used. In lieu of that, he said to use the S video cable. There are plugs for S video cable on the DVD player and the TV so I should be able to figure that one out. I can also dope out connecting the TV cable to the cable box; beyond that, I’m pretty shaky.

The DVD player is supposedly a home theater unit; it plays both DVDs and CDs; it also contains an AM and FM receiver. There are a total of six speakers. The model number of the thing is LGDVT418, if that is relevant.

The TV is a Sony KLV-S26A10; the cable box is a Pace DC551P.

As to the sound system, we use just the TV speakers when watching TV; there is PROBABLY a way to use the DVD speakers with the TV, but I don’t know that for sure.

Hope this helps; thanks for all the answers so far.

8

[QUOTE=LouisB]
I have one component cable with three wires, color coded red, green, and blue.
I have one analog/rca cable with two wires, color coded red and white.
I have one component cable with three wires, color coded white, red, yellow*.
All terminations are as shown in your picture of component cables .

*I distinctly remember the installer guy telling me that the yellow plug shouldn’t be used. In lieu of that, he said to use the S video cable. There are plugs for S video cable on the DVD player and the TV so I should be able to figure that one out. I can also dope out connecting the TV cable to the cable box; beyond that, I’m pretty shaky. .
[/QUOTE]

The yellow in red/white/yellow trio is the video signal, which is a composite, not component video signal. Component breaks the color out into three signals, the red/blue/green cable trio you mentioned earlier. By leaving off the yellow connection and using S-Video, you are using the red/white RCA cables for analog stereo sound only (just like your other red/white pair).

I’m guessing your HDTV box is connected with component video (the red/blue/green) as it’s the higher quality image, and the DVD player with S-Video.

Does your TV, HDTV box or DVD player support HDTV outputs/inputs? This could be your chance to simplify your cabling and increasing your video/sound quality at the same time.

9

Most likely:

  • find the “component out” connections on your cable box that match the red, green, and blue cables and connect those.

  • next to those should be red and white audio out connections. connect your red/white cable to that.

  • on the tv will be a “component in” connection that has all five of these connections in a group or row. Connect the respective cables from the cable box to the tv. Care not to mix the red-ended cables up.

  • connect the s-video cable from the s-video out on the dvd system to one of the tv’s s-video in. If there is an audio OUT on the dvd player, you can connect this to the audio in jacks on the tv that should be underneath the s-video input you used. Use the red and white portions of the red-white-yellow cable.

  • Better still, connect the red-white portions of the red-white-yellow cables to the audio out jacks on the TV, and then to the audio IN jacks on the dvd player. This will allow you to use the DVD’s sound system for regular tv if you wish.

10

If your DVD player has component outputs (R/G/B)
Component cable (R/G/B) runs from DVD player to TVs component input along with the analog/rca cable (R/W) for audio.
(R/W/Y) cable runs from cable box to TV. R/W carries the audio, Y carries the video.

11

What they said above. Just to assist a little further, I looked at the diagrams to your tv. The component inputs are labeled from top down: y, Pb and Pr (green, blue and red, respectively), beneath that is white, then red for the audio cable. Connect the corresponding colors/cables to the Cable Box outputs.

Looks like your DVD/Receiver can handle a digital input. You can probably improve the sound on your tv viewing by hooking the digital audio out on the cable box to the digital audio in on your DVD/Receiver. You may have the cable sitting around to do this, but you didn’t mention it above. Your DVD player accepts both optical and coaxial digital (see above). Not sure about the outputs on the cable box.

12

Found the cable box manual. It has both optical and coaxial digital out, so either of the above cables would work to connect it to your receiver. I recommend you try this, I think it will improve your tv watching enjoyment. You may have to set your audio settings on the cable box to digital output (dolby digital, I assume?) to fully appreciate the difference.

It looks like there’s only one set of component inputs on your tv, which explains why the DVD player is connected with S-Video. That’s the weakest link (picture quality wise) in your current setup.

If you’re feeling brave, it looks like the TV has an HDMI input on the side. You can try connecting the cable box to the tv with an HDMI cable, freeing up your component in for the DVD player. Just a word of caution, I had nothing but trouble connecting my cable box that way to my tv. But I have a scientific atlanta cable box which I absolutely detest. Not sure if the Pace fairs any better.

If you do go this route, the HDMI cable carries both video and sound, so there’s no need for a separate audio cable (to utilize the tv’s speakers). However, if you’re going to use your receiver for sound, make sure the cable box audio is set for digital sound (as described above) rather than using the HDMI out.

13

I took a look at the specs/manuals online for your stuff, and this is what I would do if I were you, for the highest quality picture/sound (including having your HDTV play through your home theater speakers).

Your HDTV: Sony KLV-S26A10
Your DVD player / amplifier unit: LG DVT418
Your HDTV Cable Box: Pace DC551P

To do what I suggest, you will need:

  • A coaxial digital audio cable (you don’t have this yet)
  • One component video cable (you have this already)
  • One HDMI cable (you don’t have this yet)

The HDMI cable will contain both digital audio and video signals. Connect your HDTV box (the Pace) to your Sony TV with this cable.

The component video cable is video only. Connect the DVD player to your TV with this cable.

To hear the sound from your cable box through your HT speakers, connect the cable box to your DVD player/amplifier using the coaxial digital audio cable.

You’ll probably have to do some kind of remote control based switching to select between video inputs on your TV, but you were already doing that.

I am assuming that if you have both a digital audio cable and an HDMI cable connected to your cable box, that you will essentially hear the audio through both cables (i.e., if you turn on your speakers you will have to mute your TV or else hear the sound over both sets).
If you just want to reconnect what you likely had before:

  • Run the component video cable from your cable box to the TV (“HD/DVD IN”)

  • Run the Red/White RCA audio cables from your cable box to the TV, maching the input panel for the component video (“HD/DVD IN”)

  • Run the S-Video cable from your DVD player to the TV (“Video 2”)

  • Run the Red/White RCA audio cables from your DVD player to the TV, matching the input channel of the DVD video signal (“Video 2”), leaving the yellow one hanging

14

By Jove, I think I’ve got it.

I’m gonna wait a while before trying this, but I will try it.

I love this place; where else could one find so many answers so fast?

Thanks for all the replies.